1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a socket for an electrical part for detachably holding an electrical part such as a semiconductor device (called as “IC package” hereinlater).
2. Related Art
In a known art, there has been provided an IC socket, as “socket for an electrical part” for detachably holding an “IC package” as an electrical part such as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open (KOKAI) Patent Publication No. 2002-8809.
The IC package disclosed in this publication includes a number of solder balls, as terminals, which are arranged on a lower surface of the IC package so as to protrude therefrom in an lattice arrangement including vertical rows Y and horizontal lines X.
The IC socket, on the other hand, includes a socket body in which the IC package is accommodated and which is provided with a number of contact pins contacting the terminals of the IC package. The socket body is also provided with a movable (moving) member vertically movable to elastically deform the contact pins so as to be contacted or separated to or from the terminals of the IC package.
The socket body is further provided with a lever member to vertically move the movable member to be rotatable through a rotation shaft, i.e., pivot, and an operation member for rotating or pivoting the lever member is also provided to the socket body to be vertically movable.
By vertically moving the operation member, the lever member is rotated and, hence, the movable member is vertically moved, thus elastically deforming the contact pins, and accordingly, contact portions of the contact pins are contacted to or separated from the terminals of the IC package, respectively.
Furthermore, the socket body is provided with a latch member to be rotatable or pivotal, and by moving downward the operation member, an operating portion of the operation member pushes the latch member to rotate the same, and thereby, the latch member is retired from the IC package accommodation or take-out line.
However, in the conventional structure of the IC socket mentioned above, there is adopted a structure for rotating the latch member by the operation member which vertically moves the movable member. For this reason, it is essential to locate such operation member, and in addition, it is difficult to make coincident timings of the open/close operation of the contact pins and rotating operation of the latch member. That is, the open/close operation of the contact pins is performed by the movement of the movable member, and on the other hand, the rotating operation of the latch member is performed by the operation member which operates the movable member, so that the contact pins and the latch member are operated by different members. Thus, it is difficult to make coincident the timings of the open/close operation of the contact pins and rotating operation of the latch member.